Friday, October 30, 2015

WE CAN NO LONGER REMAIN SILENT! by Fr. Cedric Prakash sj

WE CAN NO LONGER REMAIN SILENT!

-Fr.
Cedric Prakash sj*

Romila Thapar is one of the most
celebrated historians of India known for her scholarship and academic integrity;
there are few in the country who can challenge her expertise and her
objectivity. A few days ago, this 83-year old scholar was invited to deliver a
lecture in Mumbai entitled ‘Indian society and the secular’. The lecture was
dedicated to the well-known social reformer, the late Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer.
Several of Mumbai’s intelligentsia and other progressives were there to listen
to the erudite scholar. The irony of it was that in a country which is constitutionally
pledged to secularism, a battalion of the Mumbai police force were all around the
lecture hall not merely to forestall “any untoward incident” but also in
preventing late-comers from entering a jam-packed hall.

Writing in ‘The Wire’ Jyoti Punwani says
“when a public lecture by one of the
country’s most distinguished, internationally respected academics has khaki
uniforms all over, you know your city has entered what Urdu writer Rahman Abbas
calls an “era of darkness”, where
thought itself is in danger. As Romila Thapar said, it’s time for us to stand up and shout that as citizens, this is not
the city we knew, the country we want.”

“Era of darkness?” Are we exaggerating
things or are we reminded of Bertolt Brecht, the famous German poet, playwright
and theatre director who was not afraid to take on Hitler and who wrote about “the
dark times”? What has been happening with frightening regularity all over the
country is surely a concern for all those who treasure the secular fabric of
our country and the values and freedoms guaranteed in our Constitution. The
list of happenings is painfully endless; these include: the killing of
rationalists; attacking freedom of speech and expression; denigrating
minorities; lynching someone who has eaten meat; police raiding the Kerala
Bhavan in New Delhi; above all, the way the RSS has been posturing itself and
its nexus with the Government, certainly does not augur well for the future of
India.

Thankfully besides Romila Thapar, more
than fifty of the most acknowledged historians of India have protested through
a very powerful statement at “the highly vitiated atmosphere prevailing in the
country”. Well-known scientist P.M.
Bhargava returned his Padma Bhushan saying that democracy is under threat in
the country. Over one hundred distinguished scientists have also spoken out
saying “we, the scientists, are concerned
about the recent developments with reference to intolerance, polarisation and
spread of communal hatred resulting in the death of innocent people.....a
highly polarized community is like a nuclear bomb close to criticality. It can
explode any time and drive the nation to utter chaos”. This wave of protest
was of course begun by the litterateurs of the country; more than forty of them
have returned their prestigious Sahitya Akademi awards; joining the chorus of
protests have been some of the leading film directors, celebrities and
activists including the former Chief of the Indian Navy, Admiral L. Ramdas.

On expected lines, Modi, the BJP, RSS
and their ilk do their best to belittle and pooh-pooh these voices of protests. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, on Thursday
said, “you will find a lot of rabid,
anti-BJP elements among them”. In the final analysis, those who matter are
not going to be cowed down. No one wants the country to be destroyed by
fundamentalists, fascists and fanatics.

The
rest of us, can no longer remain silent in the face of this onslaught!

30th
October, 2015

* (Fr. Cedric Prakash SJ is
the Director of PRASHANT, the
Ahmedabad-based Jesuit Centre for Human Rights, Justice and Peace.)